A quiz question sent back to January 2020: There is about to be a global pandemic. Flights will be grounded. The death toll will stretch into the millions. One of the countries imposing the strictest countermeasures will be China, which will shut its border for an extended period. At the same time, President Xi Jinping will withdraw from the west, crack down on the rich and insist on “common prosperity”. Which companies will add the most value?
Anyone putting LVMH in their top 20 would have been out of their mind — though correct.
The FT’s list of companies that “prospered in the pandemic” is dominated by Silicon Valley tech titans, with a relatively weak contribution from Europe. But the French luxury goods company weighs in at number 13 despite the dreadful backdrop — adding $184bn of equity value and ending 2021 as the 18th-biggest company in the world.